Treaties: The Senate’s mixed record

FILE - In this March 21, 2012, file photo, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole looks to the stage during an event honoring Dole and Howard Baker at Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Dole has checked himself into Walter Reed Army Medical Center for what his spokesman said on Monday, Nov. 27, 2012, was a routine procedure. Dole spokeswoman Marion Watkins says the 89-year-old Dole is "doing very well" and is expected to leave the hospital Wednesday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Treaties: The Senate’s mixed record

In recent years, senators have been skeptical of international agreements. Here’s what happened to three recent treaties.

Storified by Digital First Media · Thu, Dec 13 2012 11:59:46

The recent rejection of a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled was not unexpected. Under the Constitution, treaties require 67 votes in the Senate, a pretty high bar. And in recent years, senators have been skeptical of international agreements. Here’s what happened to three recent treaties.

Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities

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Former Sen. Bob Dole was wheeled into the Senate Chamber on Dec. 4. (AP Photo/CSPAN2)

The United Statespassed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, under Republican PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. It is one of the most comprehensive laws in the world toprotect people with disabilities.

Nearly two decadeslater, the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities was adopted bythe U.N. General Assembly. It was signed by President Obama on June 30, 2009,but only taken up by the Senate this month.

The treaty had widebipartisan support. Former Senate majority leader and Republican presidentialcandidate Bob Dole — who is reported to be very ill — arrived on the Senatefloor in a wheelchair to show his support of the treaty. Dole was critically wounded in World War II and has had to live with his disabilities in the yearssince.

In July, 32 Republican senators signed a letter stating their opposition to the treaty, effectively scuttling it. Supporters, such as Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, still hope that the Senate could pass it.

New START Treaty

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President Barack Obama signs the New START Treaty, in the Oval Office in 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

First proposed by President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) treaty was alandmark agreement to reduce nuclear weapons between the United States and theSoviet Union.

When it expired in 2009, President Obama proposed anotheragreement with Russia known as the New START treaty.

Under the treaty, the number of strategic nuclear missiles would be cut by half, among other things.

Although opposed by some conservative activists andpresidential candidate Mitt Romney, the treaty was supported by all six livingformer Republican secretaries of state.